Faced with a tight race to fill Ted Kennedy’s old seat in Massachusetts, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) called Scott Brown a “far-right tea-bagger Republican” in his latest fundraising appeal on behalf of Martha Coakley.
Schumer’s missive was attached to the more delicately-worded email sent by Kenndey’s widow, Vicki, earlier today.
The seriousness of the situation for Senate Democrats in Massachusetts is becoming more clear as more prominent Democrats rush to Coakley’s aid in the final days of the race. A Coakley loss would be a painful way to start the year, as Schumer writes in the fundraising letter:
It would be bad enough to lose this seat — and Democrats’ sixtieth vote in the Senate — right before the final health care reform vote. But it would be even worse for the decisive “no” vote to come from Ted Kennedy’s old seat.
Calling Brown a “tea-bagger” is sure to perk up more than a few conservatives, but as we reported last year, conservatives are still debating whether to proudly use the moniker themselves.
